by Susan Mussi

COLORS - Problems in pottery.

Colors have their problems; firms change hands, the products change, they think new colors are needed and stop making the ones you have been using for ten years! Often, you have to work out new combinations for preparing the colors you want. You can try buying from another company, but a color with the same name can be completely different.

Note. When you buy a new color, first buy and prepare a small quantity and test it. In the last two years many of the color combinations I use have had to be changed. Now instead of manganese for the outlines I use 50% brown-red + 50% strong brown. Recently, the firm I have bought colors from for 20 years, changed hands and changed their colors and clearly the changing of one color will affect all the colors it is mixed with. The color most affected was ochre; they stopped making it and the nearest one they had was a strong brown. I now buy from another firm but as their ochre is very weak and when painted on top of yellow can hardly be seen, it has to be mixed with the strong red instead of crimson.